Second suspect in a fatal home-invasion robbery in Tacoma has been arraigned
A second suspect in a fatal home-invasion robbery in Tacoma appeared in court Friday.
Da’ron Lemar Jackson-Warren, 27, pleaded not guilty at arraignment to first-degree murder and robbery.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Kitty-Ann van Doorninck set bail at $1 million.
Jackson-Warren and 26-year-old Perris-Karlton L. Daniel III are accused of breaking into an apartment Jan. 17 and fatally shooting 24-year-old Jawuan Swift.
Daniel pleaded not guilty at arraignment last month.
Judge van Doorninck ordered The News Tribune not to show Jackson-Warren’s face, after defense attorneys Joshua Brumley and Donna Johnston argued there’s an issue of identity in the case as to who was involved.
“We are completely convinced of his innocence,” Brumley told The News Tribune by phone after court. “We intend absolutely to go to trial on this matter.”
Charging papers give this account of what happened:
Swift, his girlfriend, and her child were sleeping at the apartment about 2:30 a.m. in the 600 block of South Steele Street, when the men arrived and kicked in the front door.
Swift opened the bedroom door after he heard the noise and was shot by one of the two men. He died at the scene.
The girlfriend gave the intruders about $2,000 when they demanded money.
They were in ski masks, but she noticed one of the men had distinctive eyes. She found a photo of him on Facebook and told police who he was.
Surveillance video helped investigators trace a car the men used, and they got a tip that Daniel and Jackson-Warren were the robbers.
Investigators also used cellphone records to see where the men had been the day of the crime.
Jackson-Warren is serving time in state prison in another case.
He was sentenced to a year and a day Oct. 26 in King County Superior Court after he pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery, according to court records. Charging papers in that case say he tried to punch security officers while stealing from a Bellevue department store.